Mars Rover Spirit Recovers From Steering Glitch

jangobongo writes "Spirit's steering glitch apparently cleared up on its own and engineers are still trying to understand what caused it. Meanwhile, the rover Opportunity found a cracked rock that may provide evidence of a second water event in the red planet's past."

Comments

Overstaying their welcome

[RsD212]

Does anybody know off the top of their head how long past due these robots are? I remember them saying both machines would fail quickly, but they're still up and chuggin.

Im thinking NASA just gave those early death numbers to make themselves an easy goal to surpass. They havent exactly had a good track record lately.

Padding the numbers

[mdp1173]

I don't think it was a case of overly padding their estimates, but some condervative assumptions turned out to be way off.

Originally, they thought dusk accumulation on the solar panels would be a much larger problem. They estimated that the panels would be sufficiently covered to not produce enough juice about 100 days in. It turns out, the panels just aren't getting all that dirty and the terrain is hilly enough that you can park the rover on a North-facing slope to increase power.

As for the other components, they spend so much time making them small and light that they invariabley are forced to use high quality components that go way past their L10 (the time at which 10% of a lot of parts will fail)

Overall, it's probably more good luck and proper planning than a tin-foil hat consipriacy to make NASA look good

Re:Padding the numbers

[Positive Charge]

I doubt it. The most likely scenario is that the engineering requirements extremely conservative in order to make the mission successful and save NASA from a black eye. The fact that they come out looking rosey is a side effect of their CYA program.

I love these plucky little guys

[hey!]

If anything, I think we should consider ramping up the rate and diversity of robotic planetary missions, rather than attempting a complex, dangerous manned mission with insufficient funding.

For one thing, we've already done a manned planetary mission -- to the Moon. There's more opportunities for useful new technological spinoffs in the robotic arena.